The whole things is worth listening to, but around the 15:30 mark is when they start talking about the coaching search.

Quality Green Wave content from Fear The Wave, but man it boils my blood listening to Cowen speak and refuse to provide any clarity on the decision to go with Scelfo. Furthermore for Cowen to go so far as to say he made the correct decision, is beyond hubris and an absolute joke. It’s 20 years later Scott, i think it’s appropriate and owed to the former players, fans and Rich Rod a rationale for why people were lied to and what transpired. It also would have been nice for Sandy Barbour to have participated.

There have been many rumors about what happened, and would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and insights.

That's been discussed here often. What happened was that our then AD ,Sandy Barbour, had chosen RR. Sam Scelfo, Chris' brother, was the president of the Green Wave Club back then. He went to Cowen's house and convinced him to hire Chris b/c he would stay.

That's been discussed here often. What happened was that our then AD ,Sandy Barbour, had chosen RR. Sam Scelfo, Chris' brother, was the president of the Green Wave Club back then. He went to Cowen's house and convinced him to hire Chris b/c he would stay.

That's been discussed here often. What happened was that our then AD ,Sandy Barbour, had chosen RR. Sam Scelfo, Chris' brother, was the president of the Green Wave Club back then. He went to Cowen's house and convinced him to hire Chris b/c he would stay.

And, Scelfo agreed to 350k a year.

I think Sam told Marge and SC his company "Gambino's Bakery' would provide them with all of the cakes they wanted

Be a Hero Today.... Adopt a Shelter Pet... The Beatles once sang "Can't Buy Me Love"... I disagree, unconditional Love can be bought, for the nominal adoption fee at your local Pet Shelter !

Also, did you notice how Cowen completely omitted the 2003 review when he spoke about the future of the football program after 1998. He mentioned the Hawaii Bowl and then said we were going to have our best team since the 1998 season in 2005 but Katrina changed all that. Never mentioned all the damage he did to the football program from the spring 2003 review when he clearly wanted to do away with Division 1 football at Tulane.

Scott Cowen throws RR under the bus citing "substantive" reasons for not hiring him? Get over your own delusional ego Scott, In the end, you have proven to have substantially inhibited the future growth of Tulane University more than any President since Rufus Harris.

That's been discussed here often. What happened was that our then AD ,Sandy Barbour, had chosen RR. Sam Scelfo, Chris' brother, was the president of the Green Wave Club back then. He went to Cowen's house and convinced him to hire Chris b/c he would stay.

And, Scelfo agreed to 350k a year.

I think Sam told Marge and SC his company "Gambino's Bakery' would provide them with all of the cakes they wanted

These podcasts have been very well done, but this one was difficult to listen to. Not to diminish JP's work, but it's tough to listen to Scott Cowen not take responsibility, and answer like a politician when asked why he didn't hire Rich Rodriguez. He keeps saying there's "substantial reasons he won't get into" to answer that question. From what I've been told by Board insiders, he 1. didn't want a persona bigger than his on campus, 2. didn't want someone that would parlay success at Tulane into a higher profile job and 3. didn't want to have to pay a coach more than the President of the University earned to keep him from leaving.

The decision to not hire RR has probably cost the University hundreds of millions of dollars. Had Cowen been smart enough to not only hire him, but to also ride the 1998 season into a power conference and create a Tulane Athletics brand that would be the "Front Porch" of the University, our athletics department could be contributing to the bottom line rather than sucking from it. Scott Cowen deserves every negative post he gets here. He was the worst thing that ever happened to The Tulane University of Louisiana.

" For every alum, no matter where they are...I want a football coach that's going to make Saturday something you anticipate and look forward to." --Troy Dannen

Thank you all for your support as my son Zach continues to beat leukemia

The whole things is worth listening to, but around the 15:30 mark is when they start talking about the coaching search.

Quality Green Wave content from Fear The Wave, but man it boils my blood listening to Cowen speak and refuse to provide any clarity on the decision to go with Scelfo. Furthermore for Cowen to go so far as to say he made the correct decision, is beyond hubris and an absolute joke. It’s 20 years later Scott, i think it’s appropriate and owed to the former players, fans and Rich Rod a rationale for why people were lied to and what transpired. It also would have been nice for Sandy Barbour to have participated.

There have been many rumors about what happened, and would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and insights.

Roll Wave

Bicoastalwave, it appears you joined Gotula in August of 2016. Five years ago, in August of 2013 I began a somewhat similar threat on this topic reproducing pages 47 & 48 of RichRod's 2011 book Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football where he addresses not getting the Tulane HC job. His version of the events seems to confirm the "word on the street" at the time, "Barbour hired RR, Cowen hired Scelfo."

Thanks Wave 755! I just read through it- extremely enlightening but equally sad and heartbreaking. It also makes me feel terrible for Rich Rod. The fact Cowen or Sandy didn’t have the decency to call him ahead of time speaks volumes about Cowen.

I agree that JP should have held Cowens feet to the fire with some harder hitting follow up questions. Save them for the end of the interview, all he can do is hang up.

Thanks Wave 755! I just read through it- extremely enlightening but equally sad and heartbreaking. It also makes me feel terrible for Rich Rod. The fact Cowen or Sandy didn’t have the decency to call him ahead of time speaks volumes about Cowen.

I agree that JP should have held Cowens feet to the fire with some harder hitting follow up questions. Save them for the end of the interview, all he can do is hang up.

And, by the way, contrary to what the documentary says, Scelfo was not a "coordinator", but instead "assistant head coach" and offensive line coach at Georgia.

And, "Scott" "forgot" to tell the interviewer we went from 12-0 in 1998 to 3-8 in 1999, the biggest year to year drop-off in winning percentage to that date for any Div. 1 football team in NCAA history.

Last edited by Wave755 on Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I remember reading on the yogie board a former player posted how Scelfo marched into 1st meeting telling senior players it was gonna be his way and he talked down to seniors enroute to a 3-8 season (1999) Cowen and Dickson are both losers and deserved not 1 penny as they hurt Tulane academically and athletically